Idaho ranks No. 1 for minimum-wage jobs

Idaho had the highest percentage of minimum-wage workers in the nation in 2012, according to the Idaho Department of Labor. The department announced today that new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 31,000 of Idaho’s 404,000 hourly workers – 7.7 percent - were paid the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, or less, last year. That’s a big jump from 2011, when 12,000, or 5 percent of hourly workers, made minimum wage; that ranked 30thin the nation. Idaho’s 2012 percentage of 7.7 percent compares to a national average of just 4.7 percent; the percentage of workers making minimum wage or less was dropping nationally, while it rose in Idaho. You can read the department’s full news release here.